Richard Gibbs on Significant Moments in Research
  Richard Gibbs     Biography    
Recorded: 14 May 2004

The finishing of the human genome. I think there are different personalities in science. Some people require every morning to be able to take the film from the processor and to see a new band and discover a new protein or whatever. And some of us have a different cycle of satisfaction. To see such a long and arduous product be delivered was immensely satisfying because you never had time to think about the utility of it and how profound it was already affecting the way we do biology. Driving that goal to spike (??) was really very, very satisfying.

Richard A. Gibbs is currently the Director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the Wofford Cain Professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Genetics and Radiation Biology in 1985 at the University of Melbourne in Australia. In 1990 he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, studying the molecular basis of human X-linked diseases and developing technologies for rapid genetic analysis. He developed several fundamental technologies for nucleic acid analysis. In 1991, he joined the BCM faculty and played a key role in the early planning and development phases of the Human Genome Project. In 1996, he established the BCM Human Genome Sequencing Center when Baylor was chosen as one of six programs to complete the final phase of the Human Genome Project. Dr. Gibbs has also made significant contributions to the deciphering of the fly, mouse, dictyostelium, and rat genomes. Among the numerous awards and honors received by Dr. Gibbs, he was awarded the Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award in 2000.